telophase | (no subject)

Entry tags:

food

(no subject)

Posting mostly to remind myself before I forget the name of the dish: had dol sot galbi jjim* for dinner at the new Korea House BBQ on Bryant Irvin tonight. V. good.

myrialux had the bulgolgi and it was also good. They also served us miso soup and an array of nine tiny side dishes, most of which I've forgotten by now except for the kimchee. Will definitely go back. I'm not very familiar with Korean food, so it'll be an adventure to eat through the menu and figure out what I do and don't like on it.

* I gather "dol sot" is the stone pot in which it's served, "galbi" means "spareribs" and "jjim" means it's cooked in a broth. Which is exactly what it was - it came to the table in a small stone pot, still boiling. :D

ETA: let me see which of the nine tiny side dishes I can remember and see if the intellects of the intartubes can ID them.

1. something described as "black beans and peanuts," but what I thought were the beans had an odd chewy texture
2. fried seaweed
3. non-fried seaweed. I guess boiled? or sauteed?
4. The kimchee
5. Something described as "salad" that seemed to be pieces of cucumber and something sweet like apple in a mayo-type sauce (very good for cooling the mouth after the spicy kimchee!)
6. thin tofu pieces fried in some sort of delicious sauce
7. something described as "fish" that was in triangles.
8. something that looked like a puffy triangle that was a sort of omelet with zucchini and something else in it
9. something described as "preserved radish" that looked like it had two different vegetables in it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

1. Huh. I've never seen peanuts in a Korean dish, but hey...
2. Ooh, that sounds good.
3. Was it sweet in any way, or in any sort of sauce? Er, not that this helps me identify it--wait! I have the Korean cookbooks my mom sent (for once in English, although she has an unhelpful habit of sending me complicated-looking cookbooks in Korean and beading kits in Japanese) that might have the names of dishes.
5. Oh, yes: Koreans have a very peculiar idea of what constitutes a "salad," and my theory on this is that the English idea of what constitutes a "salad" is not really any sort of useful definition but a bunch of random special cases glued together by usage. This confused Koreans trying to figure out what a "salad" really is, so they made their best guess. I know the salad you're talking of, however, and I'm very fond of it; I should figure out if I can replicate it at home.
6. Mmm.
7. Fried fish?
8. Pajeon maybe? Sort of an omelet-pancake, usually with scallions but sometimes with other stuff.
9. Did it have the red flecks of hot pepper? Or was it just white radish and perhaps also something leafy, or else something green-onion-like? There's a type of gimchi called "mul-gimchi" ("water gimchi") that is a very mild pickle and doesn't use hot peppers, and is actually much closer to what the historical Korean gimchi was like (since hot peppers, no matter how much Koreans love them, are not actually native *g*). The other thing this might be is perhaps dammuji, if it was tinted yellow and had a stronger, kind of salty flavor? Or maybe it was something else entirely.

Man, you remind me that I have marinated anchovies in the fridge. *g* I will have some for lunch tomorrow...

1. Yeah, peanuts didn't strike me as particularly Korean (Now Thai on the other hand...). I forgot to eat the lighter-colored things that I think were the peanuts because I was fascinated by the texture of the black things. (I'm assuming I didn't mis-hear the server: she was very soft-spoken.) (Toby just walked in and said he was pretty sure the light-colored ones were peanuts)

2. It was - just surprising in the texture, as it had been deep-fried. XD

3. I don't think there was a sauce on it ... or if there was, it was very subtle. I'm not even sure if there was oil on it from frying, or if it was floppy from boiling (I had piano class between then and now; my memory is fading fast). It was that kind of seaweed that sort-of slightly resembles very very thin long green beans?

5. Hee! Well, it was good - if you manage to replicate it, let me know! I'm not very good at spicy stuff and it was really good at cooling my mouth.

7. Perhaps ... I'm sort of remembering "fish cake" as the description, but I may be making that up. It was fishy, of course, and cooked in some sort of sauce that was reddish that *looked* like the stuff on the kimchee but wasn't spicy.

8. *googles* Yeah, that looks like it. There was very definitely evil zucchini in it, though, which spoiled my appetite for it! XD (I'll have to look up some of these other non-evil recipes and try to cook them.)

9. The sauce seemed more like the kimchee sauce - orangey-red. I don't recall the taste being salty. I didn't like it very much, but I can't tell you why - there were elements of the taste I liked that came and went, and something I really didn't like. And when I say "sauce" it wasn't very sauce-y, just the stuff clinging to the vegetable pieces, which were dark yellow-orangeish, I think.

3. Huh, I think I know what you mean but I'm not sure what the name is. I was never good at seaweed types.

7. Ah, fish cake--yeah, that's probably it.

9. I bet it's ggakdugi--daikon radish (called mu in Korean, pronounced approximately "moo") gimchi-fied? It's usually orangey in color. There are apparently all sorts of names for all sorts of gimchi types, but I was never good at those either. :-D

7. Yeah, I was going to say it sounded like fish cake. Another form is round with pink food coloring, often seen stuck to the side of Naruto's face or in ramen.

7. I vote fish cake, sight unseen....

[edited out after reading rest of comments *facepalm*]

(Also, thanks, yhlee, because I didn't know the word "danmuji" at all--it's the thing served with jjajang myeon, yes?)

Edited 2010-03-03 05:37 (UTC)

1. Was it this with peanuts, or does that sound like something totally different?

(Now trying to remember after having slept...) I *think* it wasn't as sweet as that recipe seems. I've made a Japanese version of that before (simmering black beans in soy sauce, sugar, and a couple of other things), and the Korean dish from last night seemed more savory. But I could be wrong on that, and also be contrasting it too much to the Japanese dish, if that makes sense.

I'm pretty sure I've had #1, but I have no idea what it's actually called!

Was #6 this?

#6 could very well be that. The restaurant sliced the tofu thinner than in that picture, but I don't see anything in the ingredients that look wrong. :)

The array of side dishes are panchan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banchan) -- looking through lists of common varieties (http://www.trifood.com/banchan1.html) may help with IDs. The #3 steamed seaweedy one, if it seemed like wakame, might be miyeok muchim; the #3 "salad" is Korean-style potato salad, #6 might be dooboo chorim and #9 could maybe be some kind of muchae, if it was largely sweet pickled radish? OM NOM NOM.

#3 was a different type of seaweed: one that looks a lot more like very very thin long green beans. (I think. I went to piano class between dinner and posting, so my memory is fading fast.)

The non-cucumber stuff in the #5 salad seemed more sweet than potato - like an apple or pear, but we couldn't specifically ID the flavor.

Yeah, it looks like #6 is some variety of that. Their version wasn't spicy, but the memory of the rest of the flavor is now faded in my mind (guess I'll have to go back!).

#9 was definitely not sweet. :) The sauce that clung to the vegetable pieces seemed more like the stuff on the kimchee.

I've seen both apples and nashi pears called for in Korean potato salad recipes, and the local place I usually go to uses so much fruit (appleas and raisins) that the overall flavor is very sweet, nothing like the usual potato-heavy Western kind.

#8, if it's very puffy rather than a thin rolled tamago-type omelet, maybe is gyeran jjim (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyeran_jjim)?

And if #9 tasted like kim chee, it was probably some more radish-heavy variety (http://www.koreanrestaurantguide.com/kimch/kimchi_type.htm) rather than the common cabbagey baechu kimchee.

(Damn, I just ate dinner and now I'm craving Korean! *shakes fist*)

I think #8 was less puffy than that - closer to an omelet than a quiche or frittata texture. :D Might have been rolled, or at least folded. It was in triangles, and I don't remember much else as my primary thoughts were "Zucchini! Euw!" (I saw the zucchini to start with, but took one token bite anyway, so I'd have tried it. XD)

#9 -- probably so.

(Mua-ha-ha-ha-ha!! *I* have leftover dol sot galbi jjim to eat for lunch!)

Ah, #9 might be some kind of gaeran mari (http://www.theyeogiyo.com/Food/MaryEats/2008/11/27/mary-eats-gaeran-mari.php), then?

(At least my favorite place in my old neighborhood is open 24 hours! Gotta love being able to satisfy a kalbi craving at 3 AM...)

Yeah, that looks similar. :)

(Oh, and for #3, did they say it was seaweed? Because your description of it looking like skinny green beans makes me think of sigeumchi namul (http://www.vittleante.com/Marinated-Spinach-Banchan).

Yeah, the server specifically said seaweed - it had no leaf-type bits with it, just stem-like (or bean-like) bits. Didn't have a pronounced taste, either. :)

I believe those are called "sea beans" and they show up on menus in California---Asian-type menus but also nowadays cutting-edge cuisine (and locavore!) menus. They can apparently be harvested easily if you know where to look. When I've eaten them, they were pleasantly briny, but maybe that's a chef thing (preparation) and not innate?

I thought it looked like cordgrass, but I haven't further investigated.

That might be it.

Panchan are my favorite things about Korean restaurants- I love getting to try so many things!

For your next attempt, I recommend bibimbop (which also comes in a dolsot version, and then it is extra good). It is thin strips of beef, fried, then piled with lots of good crunchy veggies (usually bean sprouts, sliced carrots, and more), steamed rice, and then the whole thing topped with a fried egg. Put some spicy red sauce (which I cannot remember the name of) on it, stir it all up, and OMG. HEAVEN IN A BOWL.

Sounds great! Will do!

The spicy red stuff is gochujang sauce (http://mykoreankitchen.com/2006/09/14/yangpun-bibimbab/). OM NOM NOM.

And heartily seconding the rec to get the dolsot version when you order this, 'cause it's so much more fun and the rice forms this delicious crispy browned layer (http://www.appliedthought.com/danny/Recipes/dolsotbibimbap.html) where it touched the hot stone bowl. SO DELISH.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only